Developing Others: How Great Managers Grow Their People

    Trait #15 from Stars at India Inc. Why the best leaders are the ones who grow their people, and the exact feedback-and-belief method Avinash Chate uses to develop others.

    Developing Others: How Great Managers Grow Their People

    Developing Others: How Great Managers Grow Their People

    The manager who is only good at their own job hits a ceiling fast. The leader who is good at growing other people never runs out of room. Developing others is the trait that turns a doer into a multiplier, and in my years training teams across India, it is the single skill most managers were never taught.

    In short

    Where this sits on your Winning Kite

    Developing Others is Trait #15, and it lives on the EQ, the left side, of The Winning Kite (KITE Leadership Framework). The kite has four sides: Success at the top, Emotional Intelligence on the left, Relationship Intelligence on the right and Productivity at the bottom. You rise on balance, not on strength alone. Developing others is an emotional-intelligence trait for a simple reason: you cannot grow a person you do not understand, and you cannot give feedback that lands if you cannot manage your own emotions while giving it. Belief, empathy and self-awareness sit underneath every technique in this chapter.

    Why developing others matters

    Leadership development is a crucial part of professional growth, and the ability to develop others is one of the qualities that separates a manager from a leader. There are two hard reasons it pays off.

    First, it builds a positive, supportive environment. When you take time to recognise your team's achievements and give them regular feedback, you create a culture of trust, mutual respect and collaboration. That culture breeds loyalty and commitment. People who feel valued stay engaged and motivated, and engaged people do better work.

    Second, it improves performance directly. When you give your team the guidance, support and training they need, you help them overcome their limits and reach their potential. Better people produce higher-quality work and better results for the organisation. Developing others is not charity. It is the highest-return investment a leader makes.

    How to develop others: feedback is the engine

    In today's business world, one team plans while another executes, and it is the leader's job to provide daily feedback. Feedback should be the norm, not an annual event, and how you give it matters more than most managers realise.

    As a leader, start with praise and appreciation. Highlight the positive things your team and subordinates have done. Focus on their strengths, and always deliver feedback in an encouraging manner. You are a coach and a mentor here: your job is to guide, to identify their needs for growth, and to challenge them so they stretch. After you highlight strengths, point to the positive traits of similar professionals they can learn from, and only then address the areas where improvement is expected. When you name those areas, be non-judgemental and choose words that build trust with the person in front of you.

    In my experience as a corporate trainer, I have watched many leaders struggle with exactly this. Some genuinely do not know how to give feedback, and the connection between leader and team suffers for it. Worse, I have seen leaders give feedback when they are in a bad mood, emotionally unaware, or furious, which does real damage. This is why developing others is an EQ trait: the technique is useless if you cannot regulate yourself while you deliver it. Here are the practical steps I take teams through:

    The Pygmalion Effect: belief becomes performance

    The most powerful lever in this whole trait is the Pygmalion Effect. It states that when leaders hold high expectations of their followers, those followers are more likely to perform at a higher level. Positive expectation, backed by real support, becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. As a leader, this matters most with the people who are struggling, not the stars.

    Anil Kumble and R. Ashwin

    Anil Kumble was appointed head coach of the Indian cricket team in 2016, and one of his major challenges was helping Ravichandran Ashwin regain his form. Ashwin was going through a rough patch, struggling with consistency and accuracy. Instead of criticising him, Kumble chose to hold positive expectations and give him support and guidance. He spent long hours with Ashwin, analysing his strengths and weaknesses, helping him identify areas to improve, encouraging him to work on his variations, and rebuilding his confidence. In one match against England, Ashwin was struggling; Kumble walked up and simply told him to stay calm and focus on his strengths. Ashwin took the advice, and in the next match he delivered a match-winning performance, taking six wickets and helping India win. Belief plus support turned a struggling bowler back into one of India's leading spinners. That is the Pygmalion Effect in the flesh.

    Ravi Shastri and Jasprit Bumrah

    The same pattern shows up with Ravi Shastri and a young, raw Jasprit Bumrah. Rather than criticise the rough edges, Shastri held positive expectations and provided the support and guidance Bumrah needed. He encouraged him to work on his weaknesses, and Bumrah grew into one of India's leading fast bowlers. A vote of confidence, given early to a raw talent, compounds for years.

    One effective way to boost performance is to challenge people and give them that vote of confidence. Encourage them to set their own goals, discuss problems openly, and find solutions themselves. Ownership makes people feel responsible and far more engaged.

    Clarity develops people too: roles and expectations

    Belief is half the story. The other half is clear communication and a clear understanding of roles and responsibilities. Consider what Shane Warne did with the Rajasthan Royals in the first edition of the IPL in 2008. The team was not considered a strong side, but Warne set out to change that by developing his players. He took the time to understand each player's strengths and weaknesses, then assigned clear roles. He asked Swapnil Asnodkar, the opener, to play aggressively and keep a high strike rate. He asked Graeme Smith to play the more cautious game and give stability at the top of the order. Because every player knew exactly what was expected, they could focus on their specific task, and that clarity created unity and confidence. Rajasthan Royals went on to win the first edition of the IPL.

    The same principle drove Chennai Super Kings in IPL 2023. MS Dhoni, as captain, built a strong sense of unity and confidence by communicating clearly with players about their roles and expectations. You could see it in the way Shivam Dube and Ajinkya Rahane performed in their defined roles. When people are certain of what the team needs from them, they stop second-guessing and start delivering.

    None of it works without relationship

    Here is the caution that sits underneath everything above. All of these efforts are in vain if the relationship between the leader and the team is not strong. Empathy and self-awareness are essential to developing others and to building positive relationships. Without them, there will always be resistance to development, and success will be hard to come by. This is precisely why the trait sits on the EQ side of the kite and not in a spreadsheet of skills. Growth is granted, not extracted. If a team member does not trust that you are on their side, the best feedback framework in the world will bounce off them.

    The single line that changed my life

    I know the power of positive expectations because I have lived it. In my college years I was an average student with little confidence in my abilities. My life changed in 2013 when I met Mr. Kaustubh, my guru, who believed in me and my potential. He saw something in me that I did not see in myself, and he encouraged me with one line in Hindi: "Kya personality hai tera, tu to kuch bhi kar sakta hai." That single sentence had a profound impact and sparked a shift in my mindset. With his support and guidance, I unlocked my potential and became an entrepreneur and corporate trainer. He taught me hard work, determination and self-belief, and showed me that with the right mindset almost anything is possible.

    That is the Pygmalion Effect from the inside. When someone in authority genuinely believes in you and says so, you start to believe it too. As a leader, you hold that power over every person who reports to you. Use it. Have positive expectations, take the first step in recognising someone's potential, and give them the resources to succeed. That single act of belief can inspire a person to believe in themselves, and belief is where performance begins.

    How to build this at work this week

    You do not need a title change to start developing others. Pick one struggling person on your team and, this week, do three things: recognise a genuine strength out loud, give one piece of feedback that opens with that strength before naming the gap, and hand them a clear stretch task with a clear expectation attached. Then get out of the way and back them. Do that consistently and you become the leader people credit years later, the way I still credit Mr. Kaustubh. If you want to build this muscle across a whole team, this is exactly the work I do in my corporate training programs and deep-dive signature programs, and it is one full side of the Winning Kite.

    Bring These Ideas to Your Team

    Avinash Chate turns the traits in Stars at India Inc. into live leadership & emotional-intelligence workshops. TEDx speaker · 11+ yrs training Army, BRO, RBI, BARC, JSW & 1000+ leaders.

    ✅ Thanks! Avinash team will reach out within 24 hours.

    '}).catch(function(e){f.outerHTML='

    Something went wrong. WhatsApp +91 8793630001

    '});return false;">Select ServiceKeynote / Motivational SpeakingLeadership Development TrainingTeam Building WorkshopManager DevelopmentEmployee TrainingBook Avinash Now →

    Or WhatsApp directly: +91 87936 30001

    Work with Avinash Chate

    Avinash Chate

    TEDx Speaker · Founder, The Future Corporate · Author of Stars at India Inc.

    Avinash has trained the Indian Army, BRO, RBI, BARC, JSW Steel and 1000+ corporate leaders across India. His work focuses on leadership, emotional intelligence and behavioural training rooted in Indian values and modern business needs.

    Frequently Asked Questions

    What does developing others mean as a leadership trait?

    Developing others means deliberately helping your team members grow into their full potential through recognition, honest feedback, coaching and stretch challenges. It is Trait #15 on the EQ side of the Winning Kite, and it turns a manager who merely gets work done into a leader who builds people who get work done.

    What is the Pygmalion Effect in leadership?

    The Pygmalion Effect says that when a leader holds genuinely high expectations of a person, that person is more likely to perform at a higher level. Belief becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. Leaders like Anil Kumble with R. Ashwin, and Ravi Shastri with Jasprit Bumrah, used positive expectation plus support to lift struggling players into match-winners.

    How should a manager give feedback so it develops the person?

    Start with genuine praise and strengths, then move to the area of improvement in non-judgemental, trust-building language, and close with encouragement. Give feedback daily as a norm, never when you are furious or emotionally unaware, and be as mindful of your tone and body language as of the words themselves.

    Why does the leader-team relationship matter for developing others?

    Every feedback technique fails without a strong relationship built on empathy and self-awareness. If trust is missing there is always resistance to development. That is why developing others sits on the emotional-intelligence side of the Winning Kite rather than being a pure skill or process.

    Related Articles by Avinash Chate

    Avinash Chate services

    Corporate Trainer in Chennai · Top Corporate Trainers in India · Leadership Trainer in Chennai · Top Leadership Trainers in India · Team Building Trainer in Chennai · Top Team Building Trainers in India · Motivational Speaker in Chennai · Top Motivational Speakers in India · All service locations

    ← Back to all articles · Book Avinash Chate

    By Avinash Chate — Maharashtra’s #1 Corporate Trainer & Motivational Speaker. .